Help with FO4LODGen

[Andyno]

I started to slowly test one of the final features for my mod, which is, of course, a LOD.

 

I followed this tutorial (I skipped only the part regarding packaging into *.ba2 files)...

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/49362

... but the results are not very good, in my opinion.

Actually, there are 2 things that bother me:

1. the objects just pop up before my eyes

2. the distant trees look somehow weird (has very low quality)

 

I made a video, so you can better see what I'm talking about:

 

Please, can someone tell me what I'm missing?

[RoNin1971]

I don't know much about LOD, but I do believe the Level Of Detail is not the same as the object fade distance. They just look better, when popping into existence.

The tree's on the horizon, are nothing but 256x256 textures. Combined with buildings etc. into a 4x2K image (textures\Landscape\Terrain\Commonwealth\Commonwealth.objects.dds) Which I believe are linked to this LOD stuff.

 

So, you might wanna change a few more things ;)

 

As you already know, from my greener wasteland example picture with the new maple tree + leaves texture, I'm using no LOD mod, but do have a higher texture resolution (for parts of the landscape), increased cell load, (uGridsToLoad 9) and increased fade distances. The ENB helps for a much better picture too. Although the one I'm using is way to heavy for playing if really set for some awesome rendering (Vanilla = 2300+ FPS (if not capped at 60 (which is mandatory for FO) This "Photographic" ENB can make it drop to 20-30 FPS, if fully enabled. (I really like to keep it at 60 ;) ) ... but there are many more ENB's out there, for an improved look.

 

As I've tweaked my FO4 installation, which has seen 3 different notebooks, many times over, I'm not sure what I did and did not change currently.

I'll have to compare the values against their defaults (but don't have a copy of the default Fallout4Prefs.ini, so i'll get back on that one)

[RoNin1971]

btw: as you mention not packing a .ba2 file... the answer is probably 'yes', but to be sure: you do have newer/loose files enabled?

[niston]

I was in the same situation as you, working from luxor's guide. After some experiments and discussion, I've got good results from these settings on xLODGen beta 82:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "no vertex colors" setting prevents a nasty problem with exterior LOD in indoor cells, which probably noone else ever noticed before. There's some discussion about it in the xlodgen beta thread on stepmodifications.

 

Other then that, I could probably do with a bit smaller atlas size, as it fills only about half of the 8192x8192 one in my game. I also experience some problems with the trees, specifically the Institute ones. While their NIFs/Textures are colorful, their LOD appears a misty gray. Might be an issue with the LOD meshes/textures, haven't investigated it yet as I'm currently busy with other things.

 

Keep in mind that you have to assign LOD meshes to your STATs etc for them to appear in LOD (as opposed to them just popping in when they come within uGridsToLoad distance). In other words: If something does not have LOD meshes for at least one of the LOD levels assigned to it, it won't be part of the LOD and will just pop in.

[Andyno]

RoNin1971:

Yes, I have these lines...

bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=

... in my Fallout4Custom.ini file, and also this line...

bEnableFileSelection=1

... in my Fallout4Prefs.ini file.

 

niston:

exterior LOD in indoor cells

I think I don't understand. How can indoor cells affect exterior LOD?

 

Keep in mind that you have to assign LOD meshes to your STATs etc for them to appear in LOD

Yes, this is why those Institute trees behave differently than other trees.

I kinda solved this by adding LOD meshes from the similar ones:

 

 

[niston]

Indoor cells can use LOD of an exterior worldspace.

Diamond City is not an indoor cell but a worldspace (small world), yet it uses the same concept and shows Commonwealth LOD.

The "nasty problem" I was describing manifests itself in DC as well. When you use vanilla LOD, you can see the Mass Fusion building from inside Diamond City. When you regenerate LOD with xLODGen without using the no vertex color options, the Mass Fusion building will not be visible from inside Diamond City (and there will be several other oddities in other places as well).

 

Good work on the trees. This is the way.

[Andyno]

That's quite interesting, but do you think it may be useful also in my custom worldspace? I have nothing like DC in my mod, it's just a simple worldspace.

[Deleted77474873User]

[...]

Please, can someone tell me what I'm missing?

 

The tree model (TreeBlastedForestFungalSmall01 [sTAT:0013C379]) from your video definitely lacks any kind of LOD mesh when looked at in xEdit. I went there at the same spot as in your video and noticed the same effect with reference xxa4b3db, etc.

 

It seems that you either have to manually hunt down objects that miss LOD meshes and create them yourself or try to find LOD related mods that already add those and hope that the respective author grants permission to add those meshes to your mod. Some of the truck, car, boxcar and similar meshes you heavily use in The Zone seem to suffer from the same problem, since Bethesda obviously didn't care much about these items being used in their LOD.

 

After exploring your mod for some time now and after playing around with my fallout4.ini, it seems that The Zone is at the moment best played with 9 uGrids and an increased tree LOD distance, similar like this:

Fallout4.ini

[General]
uGridsToLoad=9
uExterior Cell Buffer=100
iGrassCellRadius=4 ;this is needed to avoid empty patches of grass


Fallout4Prefs.ini

[Display]
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=5000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=7000.0000

Funnily enough I installed the GoG version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a while ago and noticed that the grass visibility there is also a fairly short distance even on maxed out settings. In some ways you are actually quite true to the original when played with 5 uGrids. :laugh:

 

As mentioned in my post on your mod page, using such a large loaded area will significantly decrease game performance on older machines, script heavy load orders and interfere negatively with large and overbuilt settlements, since the player will often (partially) load those settlement areas just by passing by them.

 

@niston

What are your quality settings for LOD4/8/16/32? Personally I run with a fairly aggressive 4/8/12/16 which seems to create very nice meshes for people who like to use scoped rifles.

[Andyno]

Yes, all those small trees doesn't have a LOD, and that's not what bothers me. I was talking about the trees that have a LOD. Probably the most noticeable are those big ones (TreeElmTree01Static, TreeHero01) - you can just literally see how they change before your eyes.

 

When I was talking at my mod page that the mod should be self-depending, I also had to mention that I want to avoid the editing of *.ini files. In other words: I want to release the mod as the Bethesda release their DLCs - without needing player to do anything else.

 

Now, in this case I'd like to avoid these kind of "staying-true-to-the-original". :laugh: Indeed, STALKER is pretty outdated in some ways, and that grass can be quite distracting and non-immersing (just like my mod is currently now).

[RoNin1971]

Yes, all those small trees doesn't have a LOD, and that's not what bothers me. I was talking about the trees that have a LOD. Probably the most noticeable are those big ones (TreeElmTree01Static, TreeHero01) - you can just literally see how they change before your eyes.

 

When I was talking at my mod page that the mod should be self-depending, I also had to mention that I want to avoid the editing of *.ini files. In other words: I want to release the mod as the Bethesda release their DLCs - without needing player to do anything else.

 

Now, in this case I'd like to avoid these kind of "staying-true-to-the-original". :laugh: Indeed, STALKER is pretty outdated in some ways, and that grass can be quite distracting and non-immersing (just like my mod is currently now).

The distance of swapping the meshes is controlled by a bunch of settings within the .ini file. (which are set by your display settings (Low, medium, high, ultra)) I wouldn't know how else to set those.

Maybe its possible to set these values with a script, but that might break someone's game (when using an older machine. for example).

 

Anyhow: You shouldn't force any settings beyond ultra unless absolutely necessary and be clear about it (or accept tons of negative feedback on your mod), as it has a BIG influence on performance.